Advertisement

Readers like you keep news free for everyone.

More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.

Support us today
Not now
Wednesday 27 September 2023 Dublin: 15°C

# factcheck

Last year
2022
Debunked: It is misleading to claim that 30-degree heat is 'normal' during an Irish summer
Social media users suggest that climate change has been exaggerated in recent weather reports.
Debunked: A claim that the UN accused Ukrainian forces of using 'human shields' is missing context
The use of human shields breaches international human rights law.
Debunked: No, The Journal didn't report a man's death from monkeypox after his 'parachute failed'
An image featuring The Journal’s logo has been manipulated.
Debunked: No, The Journal did not report that monkeypox lives on toilets for 120 years
The article has been photoshopped and the claim is fake.
Debunked: Is it potentially dangerous to give dogs ice during high temperatures?
A viral post shared thousands of times during the heatwave warned against giving K9s ice, but is it true?
FactFind: Are Irish farmers the 'most carbon-efficient food producers in the world'?
A number of politicians including the Taoiseach mentioned Irish beef and dairy’s carbon efficiency this week. But what does this mean?
FactFind: Is Navan the largest town in the country without a rail line?
Meath’s county town was promised a rail connection in 2005 but there’s still no delivery date.
FactFind: How have other countries regulated Airbnb and what happened when they did?
Cities have successfully passed laws restricting Airbnb but it hasn’t always led to more houses and lower rents
Debunked: A drone image of lightning striking the Poolbeg towers has been digitally altered
The chimney stacks were hit by lightning yesterday, but this widely shared image has been doctored.
FactCheck: Is the protocol stopping Jewish people in the North from practising their religion?
The claim was made by former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis.
Debunked: TikTok videos touting unproven and potentially dangerous 'herbal abortion' methods
The videos have circulated since the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade rulin.
Clips circulating on TikTok recently have suggested how women can terminate their own pregnancies, Brianna Parkins writes.
Many videos have cited the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last month.
Medical experts have warned against using such methods because they are possibly dangerous and there is no evidence to support them.
FactCheck: Are there 16 vacant homes for every homeless person in Ireland?
The claim was made by Cian O’Callaghan last week.
Debunked: The pain from a kick in the testicles is not the same as giving birth to 160 children at once
It might be painful but there is no evidence to support the claim.
Debunked: No, the UN did not warn of '500 million refugees on their way from Africa to Europe'
The UN Refugee Agency said it never issued such a statement and it warned of the damage disinformation can do.
Debunk: No, this photo doesn’t show a ‘bloody’ eucharist at a Mayo church
However, a local priest says an incident is being investigated by Church authorities.
FactFind: Has the Irish Government done 'a lot more' than the UK to reduce the cost of living?
Leo Varadkar made the claim last month.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar made the claim last month - so we’ve decided to see whether Ireland has actually done more than the UK.
Varadkar said Ireland is "ahead of what’s being done in the United Kingdom” when comparing “like with like”.
Debunked: Video game footage misleadingly re-packaged as footage from the war in Ukraine
Fake footage from the game Arma 3 has been doing the rounds.
FactCheck: Did Kellogg's announce a transgender cereal mascot?
Is the Rice Krispie mascot “Pop” is now a trans woman?
FactCheck: Were refugees and asylum seekers segregated by race in a Dublin processing centre?
An activist Twitter account claims an “apartheid system” gives Ukrainians preferential treatment over asylum seekers from other countries.
Arrivals to a Dublin centre were given different coloured wristbands depending on their race according to an activist group.
Wristbands determined access to beds with Ukrainian arrivals given beds while other asylum seekers slept on the floor, the group alleged.
The group, Abolish Direct Provision Campaign, called on Minister Roderic O'Gorman to resign.
FactCheck: Did the EU ban crown symbols from appearing on pint glasses in the UK?
The Mail on Sunday made the claim yesterday.
FactCheck: Is 10% of Ireland's healthcare budget spent on diabetes?
The claim has been made by government ministers and the HSE itself.
FactFind: Will planned turf regulations reduce air pollution?
Turf and other solid fuels contribute to air pollution – which can have damaging health effects.
'How many deaths should we tolerate?': Eamon Ryan compares turf plans to the smoking ban
Govt told to 'go back to the bog' as Taoiseach pledges 'no ban on use of turf this year'
The war on misinformation: What counts as a win?
Will we ever be free of bad information or do we simply learn coping strategies to keep up the fight?
Can people be 'inoculated' against false news?
‘Prebunking’ involves innoculating people with weaker doses of misinformation in a safe space in order to strenghten their ability to spot it in the wild.
FactCheck: Is this a photo of Dynamo Kyiv players armed in military gear?
Social media posts claim ‘football practice is off the schedule’ as one of Ukraine’s most successful teams kits out in army combats to join the mililtary.
Are we winning the fight against misinformation?
Is it even winnable at all? Or is false information just a fact of life now?
Debunked: These are not celebrity reactions to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars
These are reactions from another scandal-making moment at the 2017 Oscars where the wrong winner was announced.
How Russia is using fake fact-checks to spread disinformation about Ukraine
One of the tools used against false news online is being weaponised to spread the very thing it was designed to fight against.
Russian website are increasingly using the fact-check and debunk format to sow doubt about what's happening in Ukraine, Brianna Parkins writes.
Social media feeds have recently featured red stamps declaring things as 'fake' that are actually real.
Experts suggest that traditional fact-check formats will have to adapt to combat the problem.
The Journal FactCheck joins Irish alliance to detect and respond to disinformation
Disinformation, Ukraine and the war of words on social media
FactFind: Is the carbon tax on home heating oil an excise duty - and could it be cut?
An argument about the definition of this tax broke out last week as the government moved to address rising fuel costs.
The Journal FactCheck joins Irish alliance to detect and respond to disinformation
Academics, technology and fact-checking experts are designing “whole-society” response to disinformation campaigns.
Debunked: No, this is not an 8-year-old Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier.
These are old photos of Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian activist.
Debunked: No, these are not photos of the President and First Lady of Ukraine fighting on the front line
The photos widely shared on Facebook and Twitter are old and out of context.
FactCheck: Is this footage of the famed Ghost of Kyiv?
Reports of the ‘ace’ fighter pilot protecting the skies of Kyiv gave hope to Ukrainian resistance but is footage on social media real?
Debunk: No, this isn't a photo of Meryl Streep after a director said she was 'too ugly' for a role
The actress did miss out on the part, but this photo isn’t as claimed
FactFind: How can petrol and diesel be called 'carbon neutral'?
Applegreen sells a ‘carbon neutral’ driving option at pumps – how does that work?
FactCheck newsletter: Russia is fighting an 'Information War' - and it has spread to Ireland
Disinformation is significant aspect of the crisis unfolding in eastern Europe.
FactCheck: Sign up to The Journal's monthly newsletter about misinformation trends
See how we’re fighting misinformation and disinformation every month.
Disinformation, Ukraine and the war of words on social media
In the first 14 hours of the invasion fact-checkers had already found 34 pieces of disinformation about the conflict.
FactCheck: Has Sinn Féin objected to the construction of 6,000 houses?
A report by
Stephen McDermott
The claim has repeatedly been made by the Taoiseach.
The claim has repeatedly been made by the Taoiseach in the Dáil during debates on housing.
Fianna Fáil cited 24 motions on housing across five different local authorities as evidence for the claim.
Government party's councillors voted the same way as their opposition counterparts in some votes, Stephen McDermott writes.
FactCheck: A claim that Covid -19 vaccines don’t stop transmission of the virus is misleading
A now suspended account on Twitter made the claim, but does it have any truth to it?